June 8, 2018

JOHN MENADUE. Joined at the hip to a dangerous ally that is almost always at war. A Repost

We are a nation in denial that we are joined at the hip to a dangerous ally. Apart from brief isolationist periods, the US has been almost perpetually at war; wars that we have often foolishly been drawn into. The US has subverted and overthrown numerous governments over two centuries. It has a military and business complex, almost a hidden state, that depends on war for influence and enrichment. It believes in its manifest destiny which brings with it an assumed moral superiority which it denies to others. The problems did not start with Trump. They are long standing and deep rooted.

We are running great risks in committing so much of our future to the US. We must build our security in our own region and not depend so exclusively on a foreign protector.

Unfortunately many of our political, bureaucratic, business and media elites have been so long on an American drip feed that they find it hard to think of the world without an American focus.. We had a similar and dependant view of the UK in the past. That ended in tears in Singapore.

October 3, 2019

DANIEL BRAMMALL. The financial advice changes nobody is talking about

The long-suffering consumer of financial services has plenty to be pleased about thanks to sweeping industry reforms. The initiatives mark the end of a gravy train culture and a renaissance in genuinely independent financial advice. They are reforms, however, of which the majority of financial planners and their clients are largely unaware.

Commissioner Kenneth Hayne examined some 10,000 submissions and conducted seven (very) public hearings to arrive at 76 recommendations addressing this problem of trust in financial services. Some of those recommendations have already been implemented by the government, and almost all of the rest will be underway before the end of June 2020, although most people do not realise it.

July 3, 2019

JOCELYN PIXLEY. Morrison bows to monied men

Liberal UK Prime Minister Gladstone, 1868-94, grumbled that William III put the state in a position of subservience to induce monied men to be lenders in 1694. As Australia faces recession, the Government bows to every bank demand for low wages and flatter taxes, to foster more household debts, rather than a fair and cautious economic policy.

May 14, 2015

Stuart Harris. What Australias Foreign Policy Should Look Like

Fairness, Opportunity and Security Policy series edited by Michael Keating and John Menadue.

The focus in Australias foreign policy has shifted back and forth between the global and the regional, and between multilateralism and bilateralism in economic and political relationships, due only in part to party political differences. While some policies, such as immigration, refugees and to a degree defence, are widely debated in Australia, many are not. Moreover, foreign policies are often not just linked to domestic interests but become part of domestic electoral politics whether as photo ops with foreign leaders, muscularly assertive security stances or support for influential domestic pressure groups. This often leads to opportunistic political decisions lacking long-term vision and analysis.

July 24, 2018

RICHARD BROINOWSKI. Defence Plan B.

Canberra’s foreign and defence bureaucracy is appalled by Donald Trump’s monstering of the Anglo allies and of NATO, his enthusiasm for Kim Jong-un and his appeasement of Vladimir Putin. Where to without the comfort of a great, powerful and reliable friend, it asks? To Plan B, say some analysts - a more capable and self-contained defence force that can protect Australia without recourse to an increasingly unreliable United States.

April 29, 2019

KASY CHAMBERS. Anglicare Australias latest Rental Affordability Snapshot paints a grim picture

Anglicares just released 10thRental Affordability Snapshot provides sobering evidence of just how hard it is for those on lower incomes, including those on the most generous government benefits (the Age Pension), to be able to afford to rent a property, let alone have any hope of one day becoming a home owner. What is desperately needed is an increase in the supply of social housing.

September 18, 2018

WANNING SUN. Blind Spots in Australias Soft Power Strategies.

Blessed with an enviable healthy and relaxed lifestyle, beautiful landscape, and clean environment, Australia has rich soft power assets and resources. Yet, more than ever before, Australia faces unprecedented challenges in its soft power efforts. The China factor cannot be ignored, even when we are considering Australias soft power initiatives in places other than China.

October 13, 2016

JOHN MENADUE. Privatisation and the hobbling of Newcastle Port.

The downsides of privatisation are becoming clearer.

A recent example, which has received little publicity in the mainstream media is the hobbling of Newcastle Port for the benefit of Port Botany.

In this blog on 5 September 2016 JOHN AUSTEN. How port privatisation will hobble Newcastle John Austen pointed out that in the sales of Port Botany (2013) and Newcastle Port (2014), the NSW Government hobbled the development of Newcastle Port and the Hunter Region.

October 18, 2017

JOHN MENADUE. John Kerr talked to John Guise

We know that John Kerr spoke in advance to many people, in secret ,about the dismissal of the Whitlam Government . He spoke to Garfield Barwick, Anthony Mason, Prince Charles and Lord Mountbatten. But he did not speak to his own Prime Minister

We are now told that he also spoke to Sir John Guise, the Governor General of New Guinea about the dismissal. The following is a letter printed in the Canberra Times on 18 October 2017 from Mark Lynch who was Secretary of the National Executive Council of New Guinea.

October 5, 2018

JON STANFORD. The Future Submarine: Time for a Review

One year ago, Insight Economics, sponsored by Sydney businessman Gary Johnston, published a comprehensive, independent report on the future submarine (FSM) acquisition. Launched at the National Press Club by Professor Hugh White and Dr Michael Keating, the report highlighted the excessive cost of the FSM; its unacceptable delivery timetable leading to a dangerous capability gap; the extremely high risks around the capability it would deliver; and the challenges and high cost surrounding a life extension of the obsolescent Collins class submarines. Over the past year, nothing has occurred to change these conclusions. Indeed, recent developments have only served greatly to reinforce them.

April 2, 2018

IAN CHUBB. Longing For Leadership Part 1 of 2

Australia today faces multiple challenges. They include the fact that we are unlike any other continent with species and ecosystems that are found nowhere else. If we dont look after ourselves, who will? There is global warming and climate change, and its impact on so much that we take for granted; an economy heavily reliant on what we dig up and sell, in a world less eager to buy. There is the spread of artificial intelligence and automation, and the impact on work and people; there is the increasing requirement to understand ever more sophisticated data, and its wise use; a growing need to grapple with almost unfathomable technologies rushing fast from the world of research into our lives. There is health care: pandemics, epidemics, complications from the spread of antibiotic resistance to bacteria, and how to keep a growing population in good health.

April 10, 2019

RICHARD BUTLER. Brexit: Wilful Blindness

The manic pursuit of Brexit by PM May, against all the facts and reason, dismisses any clear sight or recollection of the relevant history of Europe. Her actions will determine the future of the UK as presently constituted and, have a profound impact upon global stability. She is putting these things at risk to keep the Conservative party alive. That party is not identical with the UK. It is an English party and is apparently determined to preserve its notion of England, at all costs.

November 6, 2017

MUNGO MACCALLUM. What is Malcolm smoking?

Taking a break between grave matters of national security and remembering the holocaust in Israel, Malcolm Turnbull said somewhat incongruously that he was having more fun than he had ever had in his life.

December 27, 2018

MICHAEL MULLINS. Abstract thinkers living in bubbles.

During the Christmas break I read Rick Morton’s One Hundred Years of Dirt, which is one of the more acclaimed Australian memoirs published during 2018. It details the wretched life he’s led and also challenges the culture warriors of the left and the right. Speaking about politicians as well as journalists, he says: ‘We don’t need more journalists from the right or from the left… What the media needs is more reporters with the ability to understand their subjects.’

June 20, 2019

DENNIS ARGALL. Absenting Ourselves From the World.

This is mainly about China, but more. We have excluded ourselves in many ways from the engines of modernity in Asia and more widely by our recalcitrance on so many issues and our unwillingness to engage with the new. We are not of such weight for others to care. We demonstrate an incapacity to maintain a progressive society in Australia. That fact and its consequences for our standing are the greatest threats to our national security. We need to be aware of and sensitive to large issues affecting China.

April 16, 2019

ALISON BROINOWSKI. Who are the terrorists, Iran or the US?

In April 2014 John Howard surprised an audience in Sydney by saying that war with Iran would be next. He didnt know then about Syria but his alarming prediction about Iran looks like coming true.

June 27, 2019

MAUREEN DOWD. Trump holds off his hawks for now (New York Times, 26 June 2019)

_As shocking as it is to write this sentence, it must be said: Donald Trump did something right._He finally noticed the abyss once he was right on top of it, calling off a retaliatory strike on Iran after belatedly learning, he said, that 150 people could die.

October 4, 2018

China and world order: Navigating the Thucydides and Kindleberger Traps Part 3 AsiaPacific

Former Australian PM Paul Keating holds that as a non-Asian power, the US cannot remain the strategic guarantor of Asia in perpetuity. It remains important to the peace and good order of East Asia [but] as a balancing and conciliating power. The Australians Labor Partys foreign affairs spokesperson, Senator Penny Wong argues that to get its Asia policy right, Australia first has to get its China policy right. Arguably, the reverse may be even truer: relevant external actors will fail to get their China policy right unless they first get their Asia policy right.

December 1, 2015

Rod Tucker. What will the NBN really cost?

Cost is a central issue in the ongoing debate about the best approach to building Australias National Broadband Network (NBN).

In 2013, the Coalition argued that Labors original all-fibre to the premises (FTTP) network could cost as much as A$94 billion. In the 2016 NBN Corporate plan the figure was revised down to A$74 billion to A$84 billion, while NBN Cos multi technology mix (MTM), incorporating fibre to the node (FTTN) and upgraded hybrid fibre coax (HFC) was less costly, with a price tag of A$46 billion to A$56 billion.

May 25, 2018

GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND ...

Because our Reserve Bank has given every indication that it has no intention to raise official interest rates, a degree of complacency about Australias high levels of household debt has set in. But in an article on the ABCs website, business reporter David Taylor shows how rising US bond yields could flow through to Australian interest rates, even if the Reserve Bank maintains its low official rates.

While our government has been sending mixed and confused messages about our relationship with China, Deutsche Welle reports that German Chancellor Angela Merkel has led a high-level delegation to China aimed at strengthening two countries already strong economic cooperation. Merkel said that Beijing and Berlin “are both committed to the rules of the WTO and want to strengthen multilateralism.

March 18, 2018

IAN DUNLOP. If Business Leaders Want To Regain Our Trust, They Must Act On Climate Risk.

Business leaders seem astonished that community trust in the activities is at an all-time low, trending towards the bottom of the barrel inhabited by politicians. To the corporate leader dedicated to the capitalist, market economy success story of the last 50 years, that attitude is no doubt incomprehensible and downright ungrateful.

May 21, 2015

Michael Keating. Improving Productivity.

Fairness, Opportunity and Security Policy series edited by Michael Keating and John Menadue.

After more than seventy years of ever increasing living standards Australians have come to expect further such increases as their right. But these increasing living standards are for the most part dependent on increases in productivity. So as Nobel Prize winner, Paul Krugman put it, while productivity may not be everything, it is just about everything.

Unfortunately in the last decade Australias productivity growth has slowed compared with the 1990s when it accelerated, probably partly in response to the micro-economic reforms of the 1980s and 1990s. Perhaps for that reason business and a lot of the commentariat seem to think that productivity improvement requires more micro-economic reform; to the point where commitment to micro-economic reform is becoming a litmus test of good government.

August 24, 2015

Clive Hamilton. Damned Lies, Minister Hunt and Climate Models.

If you believe what you read in the Daily Telegraph saving the planet must mean trashing the economy. Thats their story and theyre sticking to it, no matter what the evidence shows. If the numbers show the opposite, well, they have ways.

And so last week the Murdoch tabloid took a bunch of numbers concocted in Environment Minister Greg Hunts office and turned them into the screaming headline ALPs $600B Carbon Bill.

May 15, 2015

Ian McAuley. Role of government

Fairness, Opportunity and Security Policy series edited by Michael Keating and John Menadue.

Australia to the 1980s Government at the commanding heights

For almost 200 years, from 1788 to the early 1980s, governments held the commanding heights of the Australian landscape.

The Australia in which I came of age, the Australia of the 1950s and 1960s, would now be described as a command economy, notwithstanding the anti-communist rhetoric of the postwar era, championing the liberties of the free world.

August 22, 2015

Theresia Hiranabe. "My dreadful experience of war": a Japanese perspective.

FEATURE, The Good Oil, August 18, 2015

For Japanese Good Samaritan Sister Theresia Hiranabe, the seventieth anniversary of the end of World War II is a timely opportunity to share her dreadful experience of war and how it led her to the Good Samaritan Sisters.

BY Theresia Hiranabe SGS*

The seventieth anniversary of the end of World War II is a good reason to tell my dreadful experience of war and in the end how it led me to the Good Samaritan Sisters.

September 16, 2014

Rod Tucker. Broadband projects fail reality test.

In an article in The Conversation on 8 September 2014, Rod Tucker points out that the broadband projections will fail a reality test. He said ‘If they [the Vertigan report] had used realistic data for growth in demand, their cost benefit analysis may well have shown that a FTTP network will provide Australia with the best long term value for money.’ Rod Tucker is Laureate Emeritus Professor at University of Melbourne. See link to full article below.

December 4, 2019

YINGJIE GUO. China finding its place in the world.

How Chinese National Identity Impacts Relations with Australia.

What is most striking about Chinese national identity is its stability in the pre-modern past and its fluidity in the modern era. Its dramatic transformation since the mid-19th century is part of Chinas tumultuous socio-political change under the impact of traumatic encounters with foreign powers.

September 2, 2015

Alex Wodak. Incarcerating Nations

In the 18th C Britain struggled to accommodate a growing prison population incarcerated for social reasons, mainly poverty. After the America revolution in 1776, Britain became unable to keep sending its excess prisoners to America. The solution was to establish a prison colony in Australia in 1788. Britain never learnt that incarceration is not a solution for serious social problems. Neither did the USA. Nor for that matter did Australia.

August 13, 2015

Mark Triffitt and Travers McLeod. Entitlements scandal is a sign of political rot.

When does a political system become corrupt? When is the line crossed from garden variety rorting by a few members of parliament to institutionalised abuse of taxpayers’ money by the system?

The latest scandal over politicians’ entitlements has been like lifting the proverbial rock to discover a deeply, ethically challenged netherworld. One flagrant folly scuttled out, only to be followed by a horde of others.

Individual politicians have responded by pointing the finger at everyone and everything except themselves. This includes blaming their transgressions on a “system” of entitlements they created.

January 12, 2015

John Menadue. Getting back on the front foot.

The tide is turning on climate change. It is going out on Tony Abbott and Rupert Murdoch. They will never admit it but the efforts of the Rudd and Gillard Governments will be vindicated.

It is time for the ALP to really go onto its front foot on climate change. In recent months they have been extraordinarily quiet. It is not good enough to rely on the failures of the Abbott Government. The ALP needs to develop and prosecute its own policies.

November 4, 2015

John Menadue. The Dismissal. How John Kerr saved Malcolm Fraser forty years ago,

In my post on 27 October 2015- The Dismissal - Forty years on. A smoking gun I pointed out that Jenny Hocking in her recent book confirmed what I had always assumed that John Kerr had given Malcolm Fraser a clear indication of support.

In her book The Dismissal Dossiers; Everything You Were Never Meant to Know About November 1975 MUP. Jenny Hocking points out quite clearly from material she has discovered that John Kerr was in regular and secret telephone contact with Malcolm Fraser in the week before the dismissal. That really is a smoking gun.

June 23, 2015

Worse than a defeat: shamed in Afghanistan.

Current Affairs

In London, I have been reading again some of the history of the recent UK military venture in Afghanistan. It is disturbing reading. Neither people in the UK or in Australia seem to want to learn from the disaster in Afghanistan.

Only recently our Prime Minister and senior military officials have been telling us how successful we have been in Afghanistan. Just as in the UK I suspect that it is mainly puff to cover a failed venture.

June 17, 2015

John Menadue. How the Australian Bishops and Rome ignored the warnings.

Current Affairs.

We were warned about events such as in the Ballarat Catholic Diocese. But they were even worse than what we expected. Bishops have been warned for a long time but they have ignored the warnings. See article below that I posted on 22 February 2013.

Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, formerly Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney (1984-2004) has consistently and firmly drawn attention to the damage that sexual abuse was wreaking on individuals and the integrity of the Catholic Church.

August 26, 2015

Stephen Harper. The closing of the Canadian mind.

Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, has no greater foreign admirer than Tony Abbott who gushed about him when he visited Ottawa a year ago.

Like Tony Abbott, Stephen Harper has attacked science and the media. He has weakened citizenship laws and supports polluters. It sounds very familiar. For an article in the International New York Times by Stephen Marche, see link below. John Menadue.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/opinion/sunday/the-closing-of-the-canadian-mind.html?smid=nytcore-ipad-share&smprod=nytcore-ipad

May 25, 2015

Peter Hughes, Arja Keski-Nummi and John Menadue. Part 2. Refugee Policy.

Policy Series

Part 2: Refugee Policy

2.1 Overview

The current and future global environment for irregular migration is extremely challenging.

Many more people are on the move globally to gain protection from persecution, security from conflict or greater economic opportunity - or a mixture of these things.

The movement of people is being accelerated by growing awareness of the opportunities to move, new communications technology, cheaper transport and active facilitators.

May 20, 2015

Michael Keating. Improving Employment Participation

Fairness, Opportunity and Security Policy series edited by Michael Keating and John Menadue.

The rate of employment participation and the productivity of those employees together determine the average per capita incomes of Australians, and therefore our living standards. In addition, being employed creates many of the social contacts and sense of self-esteem that are vital to our individual well-being. While arguably the best way to reduce inequality is to create the conditions where those disadvantaged people who are presently on the margin of the workforce get work, or in other cases get more work.

May 17, 2015

Michael Keating. Fixing the Budget Part 2

Fairness, Opportunity and Security Policy series edited by Michael Keating and John Menadue.

The previous article on fixing the Budget concluded that the Governments plan to balance the Budget by 2019-20 was not really credible. It relies too much on unsustainable increases in taxation as a result of bracket creep, and too many of the expenditure savings are unfair and unlikely to be realised.

This article will instead outline an alternative strategy for fixing the Budget. The starting point is the reported deficit equivalent to 2.6 per cent of GDP for the current fiscal year which is nearly over. As the economy recovers and reduces its present spare capacity some improvement in the Budget bottom line can be automatically expected. Thus to achieve a modest Budget surplus policy decisions to reduce spending or increase taxes need to amount to an annual total of around 2.5 per cent of GDP. It is further suggested that the timetable for this return to fiscal stability set by the Government involving a reduction in the deficit equivalent to about 0.5 per cent of GDP each year is about right.

December 16, 2019

COLIN MACKERRAS. China's enduring core values.

Religion in China: What Price Freedom?

Religious believers in the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) can certainly practise their faith freely and openly, provided the government does not see any threat to state power or security.

December 8, 2019

WANNING SUN. China finding its place in the world.

China. Chinese Australians are feeling the heat, whether they support China or Australia

Chinese migration to Australia has always been an essential part of Australian multicultural history. Various diasporic Chinese communities in Australia have played important roles in Australias political, social, cultural and economic maturations. Yet now their loyalty to Australia has been unfairly questioned.

December 18, 2017

BRUCE DUNCAN. What would Jesus make of our Christmas?

The Christmas stories were not written for children but as preludes to the adult message of God in Jesus walking in solidarity with the entire human family.

October 24, 2015

Ranald Macdonald. The ABC and SBS are under attack.

Now is the time to support the ABC and SBS and the reasons are clear for all to see.

Our new Prime Minister has the chance of reversing decisions made during the Abbott leadership but with him as the Communications Minister.

Public broadcasting is under attack in many countries. The BBC has been particularly targeted by the Murdoch media in the UK to devastating effect by a grateful Conservative Government. In the USA support has been cut by Republican State leaderships and here in Australia surprise, surprise the Murdoch factor has resulted in the ABC and SBS pondering a lean and restricted future.

December 19, 2019

JINGQING YANG. China's enduring core values.

China. The public health care system is getting better and Australia can help.

The health care system in the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) was once a grave social concern and a major reason behind public disapproval of the government, but recent policy change that emphasises fairness, efficiency and strong government involvement has significantly elevated public confidence in the system and support of the government.

June 11, 2019

PAUL MASON. Donald Trumps embrace is a death grip for the Conservative Party (New Statesman, 5 June 2019)

Mainstream conservatism has lost its ideological defences against the far right.

All over the world, mainstream conservatism has reached the moment of its psychological surrender to the authoritarian right. In the US, the Republican Party is using control of state legislatures to roll back 50 years of abortion liberalisation. In Austria, the conservative Peoples Party pinned the countrys future on a coalition with the pro-Putin, far-right Freedom Party, and stands bereft now that coalition is in ruins.

August 7, 2015

Michael McKinley. Alliance Ideology, The Myth of Sacrifice and the National Security Culture.

The following is an article by Dr Michael McKinley, which was published in June 2015 in the book ‘How does Australia go to War’. See linkwww.iraqwarinquiry.org.au

Conventional wisdom holds the following claims to be true. Australia is not an aggressive country and goes to war only for reasons of self-defence. The world is a threatening place and by extension Australia is threatened. Because Australia is essentially indefensible against many types of the posed threats it requires a protector who would significantly enhance, if not guarantee its security. The optimum arrangement for acquiring a protector is an alliance which, for more than sixty years and currently, has been through the ANZUS Treaty and the relationship it has fostered with the United States. To remain in good standing with the US, explicit acts of support are required from time to time, the more regular and the more extensive the better. The result is a beneficial arrangement which extends across all areas of national security. This is a popular view and is repeated in official statements, textbooks and media commentary.

June 18, 2015

John Menadue. A night with the Vice Chancellors the export of education services.

Current Affairs

Education services earn an export income for Australia of over $16 b. p.a. Those export services are expected to increase to $31 b. p.a. by 2020 from about 600,000overseas students. Education is now our fourth largest export behind iron ore, coal and natural gas. It is our major services export, ahead of tourism.

The benefits from our export of educational services have been spread across Australia. It is estimated that each international student spends over $40,000 p.a. in fees and living expenses. Chinese and Indian students represent over 30% of overseas students. The top 10 source countries for overseas students are all from our region. The growth has been extraordinary and is likely to continue.

December 9, 2019

MOBO GAO. China's enduring core values.

The economic takeoff that has pushed China up to become a middle-income country has certainly brought great social changes. Economic development has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of absolute poverty, but one marked social change is increasing disparity as a result of sharp stratification of social classes.

October 28, 2015

Erica Feller. Good democracy is challenged by mass migration.

Mass migration in a globalised world might well turn out to become, not least from the perspective of democracy, one of the overarching and defining challenges of our time. Syria and the exodus of millions of Syrians to neighbouring states and beyond is currently bringing this home in the starkest of ways.

The autonomous sovereign nation state is still the central feature of current political architecture, regardless of ethnicity, creed, religion or political philosophy. Borders classically mark it out. Political systems built around autonomy and sovereignty are increasingly becoming out of kilter with the changes wrought by globalisation.

May 18, 2015

Michael Keating. Taxation Reform

Fairness, Opportunity and Security Policy series edited by Michael Keating and John Menadue.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, the great American jurist, is reputed to have said, I like to pay taxes. In this way I buy civilisation. However, in contrast to Holmes noble ideal, too often today we hear people railing about the burden of taxation, as though it is in some way an unfortunate even illegitimate imposition upon ourselves, our economy, and our way of life.

January 30, 2015

John Menadue. Health Part 1 what can we learn from overseas health systems?

This article was initially posted in June last year.

There has recently been quite a number of articles, including in The Conversation, about what we can learn from overseas health systems.

Before looking at these international comparisons, it is worth reminding ourselves that we do have a pretty good health service in Australia. It is not as good as it should be, but Medicare has stood the test of time since 1974. It costs less than the average of all OECD countries, as a percentage of GDP. Nevertheless there are some things that we can learn from overseas experience that should guide us.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal